rself, she
added: "But I'll use my own judgment when it comes to running away."

* * * * *

In the silence of the fog the prisoner of El Diablo crept warily on.
Deep ravines laced his path and yawned close about the trail. A misstep
would hurl him to the bottom of the rock-lined gorge which was swallowed
up in the mists at his feet. Suddenly he stopped and threw himself to
full length on the ground. Far above him the solid whiteness of the fog
wall was broken by irregular flashes of blue. To his ears came the sound
of snapping spluttering flames.

Covering his head with his arms, he crossed himself. The devil was
speaking from the hilltop. On two other occasions he had heard the
crackling of the flames near the old sheep-herder's shack on the crest
of the hill. He had taken the wrong trail. Had gone too far. Worming his
way down the path he fled from the flashes of blue light.

For some time he retraced his steps in silence, thanking his saints that
the devil had spoken to warn him from the spot. Then the soft breathing
of a motor-launch caused him to stop and listen. He was again at the
bluff-side. Soon he would reach the rocks. The echoes of the motor-boat
died suddenly away and he groped his way to the edge of the cliff and
scrambled down the trail.

* * * * *

"You'd better take her now. The fog's getting pretty thick and I don't
know the shore-line along here."

Dickie Lang took the wheel.

"I don't know it any too well myself," she admitted. "We'll have to go
mighty slow and feel our way along."

Throttling to quarter-speed they skirted the south shore of the island
and nosed their way along the coast. At length the girl suggested a
halt.

"We ought to be nearly up to the Hell-Hole Isthmus by now," she
whispered. "On the beach along here there should be a lot of tide-water
caves if we're where I think. Around the next point is the goose-neck.
We'd better go ashore and have a look. We may be too far down already."

Gregory agreed.

"I'll take Hawkins and Slade and row ashore," he said. "Billings can
stay with you on the launch."

Dickie's objections were quickly overruled and the canvas-wrapped anchor
chain was lowered into the water while the dory was pulled alongside.

"Look along the base of the cliff for the caves," cautioned the girl in
a low voice. "And watch out for your oars. Keep them in the water and be
sure the wrappings fit